4 dead including pregnant mother, 5-year-old son in Chicago fire on West Side investigated as arson
Four people, including three members of a family, died in a fire in Chicago's Austin neighborhood early Thursday morning. The fourth victim was found Friday.
Family identified two of the victims as 32-year-old Regina Henry and her 5-year-old son Jacian. The family member said Regina Henry was three months pregnant at the time of her death. A 76-year-old man also died in the fire, but his name has not yet been shared.
A fourth body was found Friday after firefighters were able to search a part of the rubble that was previously unreachable on Thursday. Family identified that person as Destiny Henry, Regina Henry's 28-year-old sister.
The fire started just before 2 a.m. Thursday in the 5200 block of West North Avenue and was quickly upgraded to a 2-11 alarm. The blaze was eventually upgraded to a 3-11 alarm, calling approximately 140 firefighters to the scene.
Firefighters used at least eight ladders to bring residents to safety from the flames. At least five people were pulled from the burning building's windows, and others escaped by the stairs or jumped from the building.
Latyra Goodman said her cousin Destiny went back into the burning apartment building to get her 4-year-old son Kyle, not knowing someone else had already dropped the child out of a window to save him from the fire consuming their third-floor apartment.
"If my cousin knew her son was already out of the window, she would have been here right now," Goodman said.
"She takes care of her son," said her other cousin Andrea Boyd. "She loves her son, and you know, he's fighting."
Boyd said Kyle Henry remains hospitalized on oxygen with a head injury.
"We just ask you all to keep the family in your prayers," she said.
Brad Cummings, 76, also died in the fire, Alderwoman Emma Mitts said. He was the editor of the Austin-based The Voice newspaper.
"Know him very well, actually I knew him before I became alderman, probably about 50 years," she said.
Mitts said Cummings' publication has been a fixture in the community for decades. It celebrated its 40th anniversary this year.
"He's so active in the community. I just saw him Monday night and he wanted me to help him with a celebration for one of the Austin residents that was going to retire from the army," Mitts said. "He had been on me all week and he don't give up when he wants something and that's the way he is in advocating for the community."
The fire is considered suspicious and an arson investigation continues at the building on Friday morning. Crews were seen searching the third floor of the building.
AFT agents, state fire marshals, and specialized crews sifted through debris, zeroing in on a section of the third floor where family members say Destiny lived with her sister, who also died in the fire.
Evidence collected at the scene with the assistance of agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has been turned over to Chicago police detectives for a criminal investigation.
Ald. Mitts said the fire was started by someone because of some sort of a domestic incident. Relatives of the Henry family members who died said someone threw Molotov cocktails through the windows before the fire started. Some residents said they heard gunshots before the fire started.
Police and other law enforcement are still investigating the cause of the fire. A bullet was seen on the sidewalk outside the apartment building after the fire was gotten under control.
More than two dozen people were displaced by the fire.
